I keep the ribs when when I freeze them. It's the freezing alone that affects them after time. You can notice it after months pass by. Some books say no, but those books are wrong.

And yeah, drying does preserve the hotness better, as I found out this year when I picked up the dehydrator.

In a way, I prefer freezing over dying mainly because after about 6 months some people can actually eat some things I toss these peppers into

As is, I'm the only one who can eat the real hot stuff. Once in a while the youngest eats it.

The thing with taking my own pepper seeds from my peppers; wasn't there a topic on this when most people (well the most knowledgeable people I know in this forum like Dave, OGrubber, Donna, Heidi and others) stated that there will be a cross-pollination, or some of the hybrids won't grow true the following year from seed?

This is one of the reasons I didn't bother with store bought peppers and keeping the seeds.

So let us say I live long enough to plant another garden next year and I buy all these fancy peppers from the states (since Canadian seed places don't sell them). Would the seeds from these peppers give the same the following summer?

Per a lot of you here the answer was no.

The internet is a very, very, serious entity created solely for commercial gains.Canadian Gardening made me a hardcore separatist

Marc,It's an interesting experiment if you have the room in your garden. These pepper plants are some of the healthiest I've ever grown. I knew there was more than likely chance that they were hybrids that wouldn't grow true, but these are pretty close to the original.

Frost predicted for tonight, so I'll be busy picking the tomatoes and peppers. I might be tempted to cover a few since we could have a good stretch of weather after the frost too.

When you want to save seed of non-hybrid peppers and have them stay true to type, you must keep the flowers from being cross pollinated by other varieties you are growing. I'm not sure how far apart you'd have to keep different types to prevent bees cross pollinating them, but I suspect it would not be practical in a home garden . The only sure way I know of is to hand pollinate flowers, either with pollen from the flower on the plant, another flower on the same plant , or another plant of the same species..and then covering the flower to keep bees from adding pollen from another plant . Breeders will choose flowers that haven't opened yet on plants they want to propagate, cover them to prevent bees getting to them , when they open , self pollinate or use a second plant as I mentioned, cover again to prevent cross pollination , and then marking the plant or resulting fruit to mature and harvest for seed. Tedious to say the least.

DonnaZn2SK wrote:Frost predicted for tonight, so I'll be busy picking the tomatoes and peppers. I might be tempted to cover a few since we could have a good stretch of weather after the frost too.

Pulled up most of the tomato plants yesterday. Now I have over 50 lb of green tomatoes I don't know what to do with, and more I'll have to pick up off the ground and chuck.

In regards to the peppers, I had all the peppers bunched together. All diff types. These were all left over seeds I had over the years, some about a decade old. So that was almost the end of any pepper seeds I had anyhow. I'll just buy them to restock up on them, seems easier, but I guess I can play a bit and see how some of these will grow next year.

@Countrychic do you do/have your own hot sauce recipe, or is it one from a book? If it's your own, then you know you have to give it to me.

The internet is a very, very, serious entity created solely for commercial gains.Canadian Gardening made me a hardcore separatist

Marc, place the tomatoes in a single layer in a box box, stem side down, greenest ones at the bottom. Between each layer of tomatoes place several sheets of news paper and cover the top with paper. Store in a dark cool place.Don't wash them first. Every few days check them for ripeness and take out the ones that have ripened and recover the box. Any tommies that have started the ripening process will continue to ripen. Any that are too green will not ripen, you can make Chow with those if you like or Green Tomato Relish or Fried Green Tonmatoes....

LynAB, Zone 3A----------------------------------“Those who say it can't be done are usually interrupted by others doing it.” ` James Arthur Baldwin"